Leaving a toxic workplace is a weird feeling…
You’re relieved you’ve finally left, but also annoyed that a perfectly good job has been unnecessarily ruined by a few people creating a disgusting work culture.
I got a call from my daughter’s high school principal today. He said she’d been caught operating an “unauthorized commercial enterprise” out of the girls’ locker room. My stomach DROPPED. I left work immediately, already imagining the worst: Drugs. Vapes. Stolen stuff. Some TikTok side hustle gone wrong. By the time I got to the school, I was preparing myself for lawyers, suspension, maybe even police involvement. I walk into the principal’s office….…and my daughter is sitting there quietly with a spiral notebook full of spreadsheets. Not cash. Not customer lists. Spreadsheets. Turns out, she’d noticed some girls at school were quietly struggling: �� no money for feminine hygiene products • no winter jackets • wearing the same clothes every week after budget cuts hit families hard So she started her own underground support network. She collected donated jackets, hygiene products, gloves, and clothes from wealthier neighborhoods.
Then she cataloged everything by size and need in her notebook like a tiny operations manager. And from her gym locker, she distributed items discreetly to students who needed them — no embarrassment, no announcements, no attention. The principal wasn’t calling because she was in trouble. He called because the school found out… and wanted my permission to turn her “illegal locker room business” into an official school charity program.
I thought I was driving to the biggest parenting nightmare of my life. Instead, I walked into one of the proudest moments I’ve ever had as a parent.
I want to thank @NetflixSA and @stainedglasstv_ for taking my story from print to film. This is such a surreal moment for me!!
#ThePolygamist is my debut novel, the book that got rejected by many publishers. So I took a bet on myself and self published. The bet paid off!!
I grew up in Thokoza in the East Rand. Katlehong, Thokoza and Vosloorus were called Kathorus. I grew up during the time when violence between the IFP and the ANC erupted. Zulu people aligned to the IFP from the hostel on the main road, Khumalo street, were fighting with Self Defense Units aligned to the ANC based in the township. It is believed the hostel dwellers were sponsored with arms by the apartheid police, and would often be accompanied by Army caspers when they went into the township to attack. They would attack indiscrimately, hacking families with spears and pangas, breaking windows, burning houses etc. Chris Hani and them were involved in providing arms to the SDF's to defend themselves against the apartheid sponsored IFP.
Fortunately for my family, this happened immediately after my father, who was a priest in Thokoza, had just lost my mother and his closest friend, a Taxi owner Ntate Sanie, who was shot in his presence just a month after my mom. The family in the Free State insisted he leaves Gauteng and come back home because it was no longer safe. I was at UCT at the time, and never went back to Thokoza.
Families of friends that I went to High School with were killed, others displaced. It was a dirty war. In Soweto, where my boyfriend then lived in Senaone, it was the same conflict. Zulus from Merafe hostel attacked townships of Phiri, Mapetla, Chiawelo etc.
Kids that were born in the 90's and 2000's do not know what it was like when there were scenes of communities fearful that the Zulus will come and kill anyone who did not speak isiZulu. You are Xhosa, Mosotho, Kendall, Shangaan, anything they came across that didn't speak Zulu would be hacked to death. In KZN it became Zulu against Zulu, with IFP vs ANC, which the boers called "Black on Black violence", knowing very well they were the sponsors of this conflict.
It took a very long time for peace to prevail between these two parties and for communities to heal. Many families remain with scars and trauma from that period. The same way that political killings have continued during election time, which led to the establishment of the PKTT.
I have no problem with Zulu pride. Some of us can speak and write isiZulu fluently, and love the language and culture. What I have anxiety about, it's mobilization of society under the "Hlangana Zulu" banner. The notion that "Zulu people will fix this country" by dealing with foreign nationals because of their supposed bravery. I'm not sure if that is where it will end. However, in the absence of Government leadership and State Intelligence on the foreign nationals crisis, people are resorting to Zulu Hlangana leadership. What can we say.
There’s a phase you get to in life life,
all those hymns you sang in your childhood as mere songs , starts making total sense
Because what a friend we really have in Jesus ?
Three years ago today, I stood at the edge, scared, heart racing, wondering if choosing ME was selfish.
A collaborator offered me a visiting professorship overseas, but my soul whispered for a break from academia. On 1 May 2023, I stepped into early retirement.
What I know for sure is that those who don’t move never notice their chains.
Today I’m freer, wiser, and deeply grateful. New contexts, new people, and eyes wide open. I didn’t just notice my chains, I crafted elegant strategies to unchain myself.
To every hardworking person carrying invisible loads: your courage to move is the key. The blessing is waiting.
#Leadership #Courage #CareerTransitions #FabAcademic
At his most vulnerable, the person trusted by Mr Nkosi chose betrayal. This “leak” isn’t just unethical, it’s cruel, it’s evil. Whoever received it and found joy in his pain reveals a deeply troubling lack of humanity. Disgusting from the “source”
And no! Passing it on in aid to help is not an excuse!
this girl on TikTok said, "take care of yourself so you don't become a hater when you see a woman doing better than you." ... & she was right. a lot of women don't realize the hate they throw at other women is really unhealed envy. you're not mad at her, you're mad because she's doing what you keep saying you'll do but haven't had the discipline, mindset, or courage to start.